Trains have been staples of our travel, shipping, and overall culture for a long time. Over the centuries, trains have grown up and expanded from the humble steam-powered versions of old to the modern, technologically advanced, driverless trains which cross entire continents with ease today and serve as the backbones of our transportation infrastructures.

In fact, many trains today are wholly automated. But even with modern technology, they are still extremely difficult to slow down in a short amount of time. Anything in their way is likely to experience a not-so-nice collision if it doesn’t get out of the way quickly.

Some statistics are quite surprising when it comes to trains. Did you know that a person or a vehicle gets hit by a train every two hours in the United States? This includes the most disastrous of all accidents—a train-on-train collision, which can have catastrophic consequences.

Approximately 1,000 people per year are killed in train accidents. However, the individual hit by the train sometimes survives and lives to tell the story of what it was like.

10 Sebring, Florida

In one of the most unusual cases of someone getting hit by a train, a 34-year-old woman in Sebring, Florida, was walking along the tracks just before 5:30 AM on August 17, 2018. The woman was suddenly hit by a passing train that she had not seen coming.

Almost unbelievably, the woman was still conscious afterward and capable of calling for paramedics to tell them that she was injured. At almost exactly the same time, another phone call came in to emergency services: It was the train crew reporting that they had hit someone on the tracks.^[1]

When paramedics arrived, they had to dig through some groves to find the woman. She’d been off the beaten path of the road. Nevertheless, they managed to take her to the hospital and treat her injuries. Imagine being able to tell that story for the rest of your life.

9 Eugene Barb

In the middle of the night on October 3, 2018, in Cincinnati, Ohio, 43-year-old Eugene Barb was walking along the train tracks after having been drinking—a lot. To put it plainly, Barb was drunk. As an oncoming train barreled down on him, the stumbling Barb tried to get off the tracks. But he didn’t quite make it in time, and the train hit him.

A man on the train reported that he had seen Eugene Barb hanging his legs over the rail that ran alongside the train tracks and then Barb moved out of sight as the train approached. The man heard a thud, which was the train hitting Barb.^[2]

The man got off the train to see if Barb was okay and knew instantly what had happened. Surprisingly, Barb was not only standing but walking toward the man’s general direction. Barb looked at the man, turned, and drunkenly stumbled off.

Rail authorities found Barb hours later close to where the accident had happened, but they didn’t press charges against him for trespassing. It seems that being hit by a train was punishment enough.

8 Darryle See

Darryle See is one of the more interesting stories about a survivor who came head-to-head with a moving train. One major cause of train accidents involving pedestrians or people in vehicles is headphones—the people simply don’t hear the train coming until it’s too late.

This was the case with 22-year-old See. He was hit in August 2013 when his headphones prevented him from hearing the approaching train until it was too late.^[3]

See was casually walking on the tracks and listening to music when the screaming mass of speeding metal smacked straight into him at 177 kilometers per hour (110 mph). It threw See like a toy over 6 meters (20 ft), and the force launched his shoes off his body. They landed approximately 46 meters (150 ft) away.

Though he doesn’t remember being hit at all, See was conscious and coherent by the time the police arrived. Except for a few broken bones, he was perfectly fine.

7 The Manhattan Incident

In mid-December 2017, an unidentified 41-year-old man was hit by a train in Manhattan in the worst of ways. He was standing on the platform of the New York subway at Union Square when two men crossed the tracks to assault him. They punched him in the head and fled the scene.^[4]

As he was punched, the 41-year-old victim fell to the ground and his head crossed into no-man’s-land. At that moment, the southbound Q train hit him directly in the head and fractured his skull. He was bleeding, as would be expected when someone gets hit by a train.

Miraculously, the man was okay. Police followed up on the incident by releasing video taken by the subway’s cameras of the two men responsible in hopes of catching the people who punched the victim.

6 Chicago, Illinois

In December 2018 in Chicago, Illinois, a man stepped onto the train tracks at the corner of 71st Street and South Exchange Avenue. He simply didn’t see the oncoming train.

The man walked right into the path of the train and was hit. The force knocked him to the ground onto the rocks surrounding the tracks. That’s when bystander Terrence Sims approached the victim, who was still conscious. The man asked, “What happened?” Sims replied, “You got hit by a train.”^[5]

The man simply said, “Nah.” Sims replied, “Yeah.” That was the extent of their exchange. Sims called 911 and waited with the man until help arrived.

5 Martha Sharp

In November 2018, 36-year-old Martha Sharp was hit on her butt by a train. The only reason she survived is that the train struck the left side of her body, propelling her away from the tracks and the moving train rather than sucking her underneath to be crushed by the train’s massive wheels.

The incident happened around 4:04 PM on East Fort Wayne Street in Warsaw, Indiana. Sharp was taken to the hospital and treated for cuts to her head from the force of being launched aside by a moving train.^[6]

4 Opole, Poland

In a terrifying incident that was caught on CCTV in Opole, Poland, a man was struck by a train in November 2015. The video is shocking. It shows the man approaching the train tracks on his bicycle at the exact moment that a speeding train comes seemingly out of nowhere. The cyclist runs right into the moving behemoth.

The CCTV video of the incident was posted on YouTube in December 2015 and quickly garnered over one million views. The footage shows the man instantly launched from his bicycle with ferocious speed. It’s a wonder he survived the accident—but he did.^[7]

3 Melbourne, Australia

Probably the most miraculous tale of survival on this list was caught on CCTV in Melbourne, Australia. In October 2009, the person struck by the train was a six-month-old baby—and he lived through the incident.

As the train approached, the baby was sitting in a stroller that was just a little too close to the tracks. As the child’s mother looked away for a moment while tugging at her pants, the stroller rolled into the path of an oncoming train.

The baby and stroller were carried along the metal tracks for a full 30 meters (98 ft). The driver had frantically slammed on the brakes, but trains are difficult to stop quickly.

When it finally came to a halt, everyone was amazed that the baby was still alive and had only suffered a bump on the head. Authorities said that the six-month-old just needed a good meal and a nap.^[8]

2 Elijah Anderson

Elijah Anderson was just four years old when Atlanta doctors started calling him Superman. On November 5, 2009, Elijah was out with his dog, Poochy, when the Jack Russell terrier ran off toward the train tracks. Elijah was trying to catch the dog when an oncoming 1,594-meter-long (5,229 ft) train struck the boy at 48 kilometers per hour (30 mph). Elijah didn’t even see it coming. He was too focused on getting Poochy home safely.^[9]

When paramedics arrived, they took Elijah to the hospital. He was treated for a concussion and received stitches in his head. Surprisingly, within 24 hours, his condition was upgraded from critical to stable. Two days later, the boy was back home and returning to a normal life with Poochy. The dog was unharmed and had also returned home shortly after the accident.

1 Friendship Heights Station

The accident which took place at the Friendship Heights Station in Washington, DC, caused major delays and almost took the life of the woman who’d been hit by the train. In a wheelchair, she approached the platform to board the train just like every other day. But this day would take a drastic turn for the worse.

CCTV video from the station captured this event as the woman went a little too far. She drove off the platform and onto the tracks—right into an oncoming Red Line train, which knocked the wheelchair-bound woman some distance. The staff quickly cut the power to the tracks. They found her still alive and rushed her to the hospital to be treated for her injuries.^[10]

It seems we’re obsessed with the end of the world some days. Zombies, massive meteors, or nuclear annihilation—we run the gamut in our fiction and in our fears. But what if we’ve already been through the end of the world? What if we’ve already survived not one, not two, but 10 different doomsday scenarios? Humans are nothing if not resilient and tenacious.

10 The Dust Bowl

Lasting eight years, the Dust Bowl was a severe drought in the 1930s, the roughest time of the Great Depression. It affected parts of Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, driving thousands from their states to seek a better life elsewhere.

The combination of over-farming, reliance on a small number of crops, and lack of rainfall led to soil depletion, which turned normally fertile topsoil into fine-particle dust. The storms kicked up by the prevailing west-to-east winds of the Great Plains caused dust clouds to bury entire towns in suffocating grit.

But lest you think it was confined to the Midwest, on April 14, 1935, the dust storms were so massive that they blotted out the Sun in several states (as well as Washington, DC) and ships in the Atlantic Ocean reported dust falling upon their decks. Ironically, a member of Franklin Roosevelt’s cabinet was testifying before Congress on the need for soil conservation when the storm hit. He reportedly pointed out the window and stated, “This, gentlemen, is what I’ve been talking about.”

A combination of soil conservation laws and programs as well as rain finally returning to the Plains states in 1939 brought a close to what must have seemed like the end of days to many.

9 The Mongol Conquests

Ruthless and dispassionate, the Mongol hordes descended upon the societies of Asia and Europe like a force of nature. During the 13th century, Genghis Khan forged the many tribes and clans of the central Asian steppes into an effective and devastating war machine, conquering China, the Middle East, Russia, and parts of Europe.

That the Mongols killed many is not in doubt, but the exact number can be hard to pin down. Some regions such as China had excellent census figures, but other places did not (or their records didn’t survive). While we may not know exactly how many people perished as the hordes swept through Eurasia, we do know that there was a sudden drop-off in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—a drop-off that cannot be explained except by the deaths of millions of living, breathing animals.

The Mongols, though, eventually lost momentum and fragmented. Their massive empire eventually fractured and dissolved, a mere 100 years after they started.

8 The Black Plague

Most people are aware of the massive, devastating plague known as the Black Death, which swept through Europe in the 14th century. It is reported to have killed around 50 percent of the European population.

But what many people don’t know is that the Black Death didn’t just affect Europe but Africa, the Middle East, and Asia as well. The plague, caused mainly by the microbe yersenia pestis, was phenomenally virulent.

It spawned not just the plague itself but widespread panic and the rise of crazy superstitions, such as that the disease was caused by God’s displeasure. The disease struck down the rich, poor, weak, powerful, pious, and heretical alike and led to massive social upheavals.

The plague returned periodically afterward but lacked the impact of the 14th-century outburst. Yet it still remains in our collective memory, albeit in the form of a poetic misconception: “Ring Around the Rosie”, which most people believe chronicles the stages (and attempts to prevent) the Black Death. On the contrary this famous nursery rhyme appears to have no connection to the plague—nor, indeed, any sinister origins at all.

7 Potato Famine

In the mid-19th century, the reliance of many working poor upon a single crop (potatoes) led to millions of deaths. Most people associate this disaster with Ireland, and they’re partly right. Ireland did indeed have the most visible manifestation of the “blight.”

But it was definitely not the only country to suffer. The blight actually struck most of northern and central Europe, including Scotland, where it was known as the “Highland Blight” or “Highland Famine.” The blight also affected Belgium and was devastating to the German economies, leading to near total societal collapse as starving workers died in the streets of Europe.

The tragedy was made worse by the fact that in many regions, such as in Ireland, there was more than enough food produced, but governments and merchants alike favored the profits made by selling grain and food overseas.

6 The Thirty Years’ War

Arguably the most famous of the “religious” wars of Europe, the Thirty Years’ War was a series of conflicts pitting one nation against another in an attempt to resolve several matters, including the primacy of Catholicism or Protestantism. Nearly every country in Europe participated in the wars, but the most devastating battles took place in the Holy Roman Empire of Central Europe.

The very nature of the war, which combined political greed with religious obsession, meant that no side was willing to be merciful to the other. The result devastated Germanic cities and states, leaving many municipalities as ghost towns and harvests of staple grains reduced by up to 75 percent.

5 World War II

The last great world conflagration is etched indelibly in history. Every corner of the globe, with the possible exception of the Antarctic, saw combat between the Allied and Axis forces. The result was an utterly devastated Europe and Asia.

During the war, 80 million people died in combat, through pogroms (including the Holocaust), and by starvation. By the end of the war, starvation and deprivation were commonplace as people tried to eke out a living amid the destroyed ruins of once-great cities. No running water, no electricity, no food, and barely any government in Europe, China, and Japan left innocent civilians perched upon the knife’s edge of chaos or death.

To illustrate how devastated the world economy and society was, the United States was producing one of every two products made from 1945 to 1946. The destruction was so complete that the normally isolationist United States Congress was motivated to embark upon an ambitious pair of spending projects to jump-start the world economy and prevent a return to the Great Depression. The Marshall Plan and a similar plan launched in Japan and China spent tens of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid.

4 Smallpox In The Western Hemisphere

Contact with Europeans, even if it had been completely peaceful, would not have been benign for people living in the Americas or the islands of the Pacific. Unknown to the Europeans, a nearly invisible hitchhiker had come along on their 15th- and 16th-century voyages of exploration: smallpox.

Along with other diseases that Europeans had built up a resistance to over the centuries, smallpox devastated native populations in North America, the Caribbean, South America, and Oceania. Over the centuries, conservative estimates of the death toll from the disease put the number at 60–70 percent of native populations. Powerless to stop the disease and seeking refuge from the high fevers and horrible pain, natives prayed to their gods or committed suicide to ease their suffering.

3 The Fall Of Western Rome

Often lamented in medieval literature and bemoaned in Enlightenment writings, the contraction and eventual collapse of the Western half of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD must have seemed like the end of everything. Lasting nearly 1,000 years, Rome had a profound impact upon Mediterranean and European cultures.

Many successor states tried to emulate the pattern of Rome with varying success. However, unlike some of the other apocalypses on this list, the collapse of Western Rome was a drawn-out affair rife with invasions, governmental collapse, and starvation.

Roman Britain, for example, was left to its own devices as the legions withdrew and the Germanic Jutes, Angles, and Saxons invaded, reshaping Britain through conquest. Similarly, Germanic tribes filled the void in Iberia, Gaul, and even the Italian peninsula. Goths, Visigoths, and the infamous Vandals—their names and reputations for brutality persist to this day.

These tribes warred with the people who remained, with each other, and with the Eastern Roman Empire which sought (and failed) to recapture the lost Western Empire. It wasn’t until the eighth century that things began to settle down (sort of) in Western Europe.

2 The Fall Of The Qing Dynasty

China is—and always has been—the most populous place on Earth. Its governments are in charge of the lion’s share of the Earth’s people. Thus, it is no surprise that when one of their governments collapse, it is devastating to the world’s population.

No collapse—and attendant famine—was more pronounced than the end of the Qing dynasty. By the mid-19th century, the Qing dynasty’s fortunes had waned dramatically. Inflation had put even basic foodstuffs out of the reach of ordinary people, greedy bureaucrats and the rich had forced people off their land, and there was a massive influx of the addictive drug opium.

By the mid-18th century, the Chinese had ballooned to nearly 500 million people. So when the economy did collapse in 1876, millions of people starved to death every single year. Add to that the devastation of the First and Second Opium Wars, and the Qing dynasty’s eventual collapse was all but assured. The chaos which ensued led to tens of millions more deaths due to rioting, starvation, war, and disease.

1 Megiddo

The city of Megiddo (aka Tel Megiddo) was an important hub of trade, culture, and power in the ancient world. It was prized by the two major powers of the time—the Assyrians and the Egyptians—so much so that the town was conquered dozens of times in the ancient period.

What’s remarkable about the town is not its conquest but that the memory of those massive, bloody conflicts have worked their way into popular consciousness, mythology, and the three major Abrahamic religions. The battles which raged between Assyria and Egypt, particularly under Thutmose III, were so horrifying and devastating that the later Greek word for the city became synonymous with the end of the world: Armageddon.

It is believed by many devout followers of Abrahamic religions, such as Christianity, that the last battle of all time between the forces of good and evil will occur there. Interestingly, since that cataclysmic battle in the 15th century BC, there have been dozens of battles, big and small, fought in or near Tel Megiddo, including a major battle in World War I between the British and the Ottoman forces.

Michael is a lecturer at two Midwestern universities and loves to work in the creepy, odd, cool, and strange tidbits into his lectures to illustrate just how cool history is.

Some of the world’s most recognizable brands weren’t always guaranteed success. While they might seem like permanent fixtures in our everyday lives, many iconic companies faced dark times when bankruptcy or closure seemed inevitable. From risky expansions and changing consumer demands to economic downturns and poor management decisions, these brands were pushed to the brink. Yet, against the odds, they managed to turn things around with smart strategies, product innovations, or sheer perseverance.

In this list, we’ll explore ten famous brands that came dangerously close to disappearing, only to stage remarkable comebacks that redefined their industries.

Related: 10 Shadowy Facts About the Secret Company That Runs the World

10 Apple

Today, Apple is one of the most valuable companies globally, but in the mid-1990s, it was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Faced with declining sales, poor product reception, and intense competition from Microsoft, Apple seemed doomed. The company was losing millions, and its stock had plummeted, causing many analysts to doubt its survival. In 1997, Apple was within months of going bankrupt when it took a drastic step by bringing back co-founder Steve Jobs, who had been ousted over a decade earlier.

Jobs introduced a new vision and product line that helped redefine Apple’s brand. The launch of the iMac in 1998 marked the beginning of Apple’s resurgence, followed by the revolutionary iPod in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007. These products reinvigorated the brand and turned Apple into a leader in technology and design. With its focus on innovative, user-friendly products, Apple rebounded from the brink and has since become a symbol of modern technology and design excellence.^[1]

9 Marvel Entertainment

Marvel’s superheroes dominate the entertainment world today, but in the mid-1990s, Marvel Entertainment was struggling. The company, which owned the rights to iconic characters like Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Avengers, filed for bankruptcy in 1996. Years of mismanagement, unsuccessful product lines, and a slump in comic book sales left Marvel saddled with debt. The company sold off some of its character rights to movie studios, including Sony and Fox, to generate cash.

In the early 2000s, Marvel took a bold step by creating its own film studio and taking control of its intellectual property. The release of Iron Man in 2008 marked the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which became a massive success. The success of the MCU transformed Marvel into an entertainment powerhouse, eventually leading to its acquisition by Disney in 2009. Today, Marvel is one of the most profitable brands in the entertainment industry, with its characters appearing in blockbuster films, TV shows, and merchandise worldwide.^[2]

8 Lego

Lego, the beloved toy brand, was on the verge of collapse in the early 2000s. The company expanded too quickly in the 1990s, launching numerous new product lines, theme parks, and other ventures that failed to generate expected revenue. By 2004, Lego was nearly $800 million in debt, with many analysts predicting its downfall. The company struggled to adapt to digital-age competition and faced declining sales as kids turned to video games.

Lego’s turnaround began when the company refocused on its core product—bricks. It introduced popular themed sets like Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Ninjago, capitalizing on existing fan bases. The company also embraced digital initiatives, such as Lego video games and movies, bringing the brand to new audiences. The 2014 release of The Lego Movie reignited global interest in Lego, proving that the brand could adapt to modern entertainment demands. Today, Lego is one of the world’s most successful toy companies, proving the power of creative rebranding and strategic focus.^[3]

7 Converse

Converse shoes, particularly the Chuck Taylor All-Stars, are iconic today, but in the early 2000s, the brand was facing severe financial troubles. Despite its historical popularity, Converse struggled with changing fashion trends and increased competition from brands like Nike and Adidas. In 2001, Converse filed for bankruptcy, and it looked like the brand might disappear altogether after nearly a century in business.

In 2003, Nike acquired Converse and revitalized the brand with a focus on heritage and modern appeal. Nike leveraged Converse’s retro style, reintroducing the classic Chuck Taylors with updated designs and collaborations with popular designers and artists. This move repositioned Converse as a fashionable, vintage-inspired brand that appealed to younger audiences. Since then, Converse has become a staple in fashion and streetwear, proving that a historic brand can find new life with the right approach.^[4]

6 Netflix

Today, Netflix is a streaming giant, but in its early days, it was nearly pushed out of the market by Blockbuster. Founded in 1997 as a DVD rental service, Netflix struggled to compete with Blockbuster’s physical stores. In 2000, Netflix offered to sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million, but Blockbuster declined. As DVD rentals declined, Netflix faced the possibility of running out of business.

Instead, Netflix adapted by pivoting to streaming in 2007, marking a major turning point. As consumer demand shifted towards digital streaming, Netflix capitalized on the trend and began producing original content, starting with House of Cards in 2013. Its shift to streaming and original programming catapulted Netflix to the forefront of the entertainment industry, and today, it’s a leader in on-demand streaming worldwide.^[5]

5 General Motors

General Motors (GM), one of the most iconic American automakers, filed for bankruptcy in 2009 during the global financial crisis. Facing plummeting sales, massive debt, and a reputation for producing fuel-inefficient vehicles, GM was unable to survive the economic downturn. The U.S. government stepped in with a $50 billion bailout, and GM underwent a complete restructuring, selling off brands and closing plants.

The bailout helped GM rebuild its reputation, and the company focused on producing more efficient, high-quality vehicles to regain consumer trust. By shifting to innovative products like the Chevrolet Volt, one of the first mainstream electric cars, GM adapted to changing consumer demands. Today, GM remains a key player in the automotive industry, proving that even the most established brands can bounce back with the right support and strategy.^[6]

4 Airbnb

Airbnb, now synonymous with short-term rentals, faced a rocky start after its launch in 2008. Founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia struggled to secure funding, and by 2009, they were drowning in debt. Airbnb tried multiple tactics to raise money, including selling cereal called “Obama O’s” and “Cap’n McCain’s” during the 2008 U.S. election. Despite these efforts, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy until a breakthrough in 2009, when it secured funding from Y Combinator.

The investment allowed Airbnb to refine its business model and expand globally. The brand gained traction as an affordable alternative to hotels, and by focusing on user experience and unique properties, Airbnb created a new category in the travel industry. Today, Airbnb is valued at billions, providing millions of hosts and travelers with innovative accommodation options worldwide.^[7]

3 Best Buy

Best Buy, the electronics retailer, struggled in the early 2010s as it faced fierce competition from online retailers like Amazon. Sales declined, and the company’s “big-box” store format felt outdated in a digital-first world. Best Buy’s profits plummeted, and it was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2012, with many analysts predicting its imminent demise.

Under new CEO Hubert Joly, Best Buy implemented a turnaround strategy focused on improving customer service, matching Amazon’s prices, and revamping stores to emphasize tech support and in-store experiences. The company also established partnerships with tech giants like Apple and Samsung, creating “store-within-a-store” experiences. These initiatives helped Best Buy regain profitability and adapt to the e-commerce era, transforming it into a rare brick-and-mortar retail success story.^[8]

2 IBM

IBM was once the undisputed leader in computing, but by the 1990s, the company was struggling to keep up with the rapidly evolving tech industry. With the rise of personal computers, IBM’s mainframe-centric business model became outdated, and the company posted significant financial losses. By 1993, IBM was on the verge of bankruptcy and had to lay off tens of thousands of employees.

IBM’s turnaround came when it shifted from hardware manufacturing to software and consulting services, focusing on technology solutions for businesses. The company pivoted towards artificial intelligence and cloud computing, investing heavily in these emerging technologies. Today, IBM is a major player in enterprise computing, and its transformation has allowed it to remain relevant in an industry marked by rapid change.^[9]

1 Nintendo

Nintendo, a household name in gaming, faced financial troubles in the early 2000s as competition from Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox threatened its market position. Sales of Nintendo’s GameCube console lagged behind competitors, and the company was struggling to capture a wider audience. By 2004, analysts were questioning whether Nintendo could survive as a console maker.

Nintendo responded by shifting its focus to more innovative and accessible gaming. The launch of the Nintendo DS in 2004 and the Wii in 2006, with its motion-sensing technology, broadened Nintendo’s appeal to casual gamers and families. Both consoles became massive successes, redefining gaming as an inclusive, family-friendly experience. Nintendo’s comeback solidified its reputation as an innovative leader in gaming, with the company later launching the wildly popular Switch console.^[10]

Animals have an uncanny ability to know when a natural disaster is about to strike. Sometimes, they run away or hide, and their humans have no way of finding them in time to evacuate. More often than not, a pet owner has no choice but to leave their animals behind in order to save themselves.

At the end of every natural disaster – whether it be a flood, earthquake, tsunami, fire, or tornado, local shelters have to gather abandoned pets and attempt to reunite them with their owners. Many pets go unclaimed, and other times, people learn that their pets are not among the survivors. But in these next ten stories, pets are reunited with their owners in the most amazing ways.

10 Cadie the Cat

Judy Pugh was an elderly woman sitting in her home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama when a tornado hit. A wall fell on top of her, which held her body down as the rest of her house was sucked up into the twister. Neighbors called her name and lifted the wall off of her, and the storm continued to move on and ravaged the rest of the town. Pugh had three pet cats, and finding them after the storm was her only concern.^[1]

She managed to find two of the cats soon after. but sadly, she could not find her third cat, Cadie. Her family suspected that the 10-year old feline was carried away in the twister. Despite the fact that over a month had passed since the storm, she did not give up hope. Pugh continued to show up to the wreckage of her home and search for the cat every single day. A local TV station found Ms. Pugh standing by the wreckage and interviewed her. In the middle of the recording, Cadie the cat silently emerged out of the remains of Pugh’s house. He found his way home home after all.

Cadie was skinny, dirty, and could not even muster the strength to meow. Pugh walked over to him, gingerly scooping his tiny body into her arms. “I have everything in the world, now,” Pugh said as she began to cry. She cuddled her pet close to her chest. The TV microphone picked up the loud purring emanating from the tired cat.

9 The Farm in Plum Grove

Lester Morrow had no choice but to abandon his farm animals in Plum Grove, Texas during Hurricane Harvey. He was able to bring his dog with him, but they had no time to hitch a trailer behind their truck, and left behind several horses, donkeys, goats, and a potbelly pig named Patty.^[2]

When Morrow returned to his farm, he was recording the devastation on his cellphone, starting at the end of his long driveway. There was still a lot of water on the property, and he commented about the trash and debris that floated onto his land, when he saw in the distance that Patty the pig was so happy to hear Morrow’s voice, she was wading through the water to greet him. He immediately began sobbing, and recorded the animals who had survived the storm.

Many of his horses had broken legs, and over a dozen animals had died, but several of them managed to break down a fence and stand on the porch of the house in order to survive. He posted the video on YouTube to share with friends and family, and it went viral. He made a GoFundMe campaign to help his animals, and he raised $14,000.

8 Ban

On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by an 9.0 magnitude earthquake that was followed by a tsunami that hit the northern part of the country. Three weeks after the disaster, the Japanese coast guard was still flying over the ocean to search for bodies that may be floating in the water. A mile away from shore, they spotted a dog walking around on top of the roof of a house that was floating in the water. Somehow, it had survived the tsunami. They lowered a man down from a helicopter to rescue the dog, who was later identified as “Ban”. The dog was wrapped in blankets, given food and water, and the rescue team carried him out on a stretcher.^[3]

Ban was reunited with his owner, who wished to remain anonymous in the media, so she wore a medical mask in the video of when they reunited to conceal her face. Ban still recognized her, and jumped up, wagging his tail and snuggling into her chest as she hugged him. “Thank goodness…I’ll never let him go,” she told the press.

7 Izzy

In 2017, wildfires spread across Santa Rosa, California, destroying thousands of homes in its path. The Weaver family was forced to evacuate, and they could not find their dog, Izzy, in time to escape. On October 10th, Jack Weaver and his brother-in-law Patrick Widen returned back to Weaver’s property to see if there was anything left. He began recording on this cellphone, and even from far away, he could see that their home was completely burned to the ground. Even though it was a long shot, they began whistling and calling Izzy’s name, in hope that he somehow escaped the flames.

Their disappointment was almost immediately replaced by joy, because Izzy the shaggy Bernese Mountain dog began walking towards them. Not only did he survive, but the loyal dog was waiting in the ashes of his former home for his master to return. It was totally unexpected, and the brothers began screaming out of joy as their reaction was captured on film.^[4]

6 Rica

Charles Trippy gained Internet fame by daily vlogging every single day for several years. He had continued to do this for so long, he even holds a Guinness World Record. When Florida was expected to be hit by Hurricane Irma in 2017, their town was ordered to evacuate. Charles and his family decided to take their chances by staying at home with their dogs and an electric generator. Since vlogging on YouTube is his job, Trippy recorded the experience of living in a town that was almost completely empty before, during, and after the storm.

Just as Charles and his wife Allie were driving home from with supplies from the hardware store to officially hunker down for the night, they spotted a tiny 4-week old kitten standing in the middle of the street. They got out and took her into their car and refused to leave the baby behind. That night, the amount of damage and flooding caused by the storm was worse than they imagined, and they were lucky that their house survived. They knew that if they had not rescued the kitten, there is no doubt that it would have died. They decided to name her Rica, which is short for Hurricane.

5 Junior

A tornado hit Granbury, Texas in 2013. A man named Jerry Shuttlesworth was living in a trailer park. Without a basement or a place to hide, he had no choice but to shut himself in the laundry room with his dog, a pitbull named Junior. The tornado directly hit his trailer, and Shuttlesworth described it like the home was being crushed down, and then sucked up. He flew into the air, and the wind flipped him upside down. He was desperately trying to hold on to Junior, but the tornado ripped the dog out of his arms.

The tornado dropped Shuttlesworth about 20 feet away, but the dog had completely disappeared in the twister. He laid on the ground with broken bones, looking up at the tornado. He described seeing debris circling in slow motion above his head, and it was so surreal, it was unlike anything he had ever seen in his life. After getting rescued and getting Internet access, Shuttlesworth posted a photo of Junior as a missing pet on Facebook.

By no small miracle, the local animal shelter found him. They called the news, and the best friends were reunited on film. He told the reporters that he was going to treat Junior to a meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken. “I think he flew through the air. Y’know, dogs weren’t meant to fly. But he had an angel with him.”

4 Snoopy and Abbey

After Hurricane Harvey, Texas shelters were filled to the brim with pets in cages, waiting for their owners to find them. In August of 2017, reporters rode along with The Humane Society of Dickinson, Texas. They were responding to phone call from people who were displaced from their homes, and pleaded for them to find their missing dog and cat. They arrived to the flooded neighborhood, whistling and calling the names of the pets, and found two dogs.^[5]

They were a poodle named Snoopy and English bulldog, Abbey. A kind stranger saw the two dogs swimming through the water together. She rescued them and brought them to her house, which was above the flood line. A man named Ryan Johnson showed up to claim Abbey and Snoopy from the shelter. He knew that they belonged to his father-in-law, who was having nightmares and losing sleep over the fate of his dogs. “He can finally sleep tonight,” Johnson said.

3 Odin

Ronald Handel lived on a ranch in California. He owned two Great Pyrenees mountain dogs who took care of their 8 goats. It was their job to protect the goats from predators in the California mountains. In 2017, when the wildfires were approaching in the distance, Handel scrambled to get his daughter and the dogs into the car so they could evacuate.^[6]

One of the dogs, Odin, refused to neglect his doggy duty. He laid down with the goats, and stared at Handel, as if to say, “I’m not leaving.” Handel waited as long as he could for Odin to come around, but they had to leave. He describes a horrific scene of the fire being so close behind him and his daughter as they drove, it sounds like a scene out of an action movie. They could see parked cars a few yards behind them filling with flames, and heard explosions from propane tanks, and the shriek of grinding of melting, twisting metal.

After the flames were put out, Handel and his young daughter did not expect to find anything when they returned to their property, but Odin was still there. He and the goats were slightly burned in a few spots, but he had managed to bring them all to safety, despite the fact that everything else around them was burned to the ground. He was limping, and very tired, so Handel knew that Odin had been on an adventure of his own to save his friends. If only dogs could talk.

2 Mei-Chan

After the 2011 tsunami in Japan, Fuji TV was filming the damage from the disaster, and they spotted a Brittany Spaniel. She walked up to them urging them to follow her. She walked over to an English Setter who was laying on the ground, clearly injured and unable to move. While the men sounded sad and concerned for the dogs, and they sent a message to “please help” to the Nippon SPCA, the witnesses failed to do anything to help the pups themselves.^[7]

The video made its way to YouTube, called “Stay together dogs”. It went viral, and people around the world were heartbroken and started sending money to the Nippon SPCA to help their rescue efforts. However, the video started a controversy, and the SPCA began to receive threatening phone calls from people accusing them of not working hard enough to save the dogs. Owners of dog food companies created raising money for their own campaigns to save the “stay together dogs”. People were very invested in the fate of the pups.

The dog’s owner saw the video, and recognized her dog, Mei-chan. The second dog, Lee-chan, also belonged to her. It took eight months for the Nippon SPCA to finally find Mei-chan, and she was reunited with her owner.

1 T2

In 2002, a retired K-9 police officer named Perry Martin adopted a ginger kitten and named it T2. Hurricane Jeanne hit Florida in 2004, and everyone lost their power, and they could not turn on the air conditioning in the summer heat. Martin started leaving his windows open to let some air in. The 2-year old cat climbed through a window and out into the hurricane aftermath. Martin searched for a long time, and notified all of the local shelters, but after enough time passed, Martin accepted that he would never see T2 again.^[8]

In 2018, a local animal shelter found a skinny stray cat and brought him in. The scanned him for a microchip, and called up Perry Martin. When they told him that they had the cat that had gone missing 14 years earlier, he did not believe them, but sure enough, he was reunited with his cat, who was now an elderly 16 year old. They have no idea where T2 was for 14 years, or how he managed to survive, but during media interviews, he looks very content curled up in Perry Martin’s lap.

Shannon Quinn (shannquinn.com) is a writer from the Philadelphia area. You can find her on Twitter @ShannQ

It’s an indisputable fact that some of the best people in the world are dogs. Dogs are great. No citation is needed. They make wonderful companions, they’re fun and also helpful since they can be trained to do everything from fetching a stick to identifying drugs and alerting you to seizures. Good dog! Who’s a good dog?!?

As wonderful as dogs are, they can also be absolutely amazing and defy belief. Sometimes a dog can seem close to otherworldly, especially in terms of what some of them have survived. 

10. Three Dogs Survived the Titanic

We don’t actually have an accurate number for how many people died on the Titanic, but it was over 1,500. Only 705 survived. Less well-known is that there were also dogs on the Titanic, and three of them survived as well.  

Twelve dogs were on the Titanic and that makes sense since this was a luxury cruise for wealthy people. Of course, many of them brought their dogs. Two Pomeranians and a Pekingese survived because they were small enough that their owners could carry them onto the lifeboats as the Titanic sank. 

There is some evidence that those who spotted the dogs were less than amused by their presence. Rescuers on the Carpathia saw that Elizabeth Barrett Rothschild had a Pomeranian and refused to bring it on board until she said if the dog wasn’t going to be rescued then neither was she. 

There’s also a story about a woman named Ann Isham who had brought a large dog onto the vessel and refused to leave without it. The dog, which may have been a Great Dane or St. Bernard, would have been far too large for a lifeboat. Isham stayed on the Titanic. 

9. Two Sled Dogs Were Abandoned for 11 Months in the Antarctic and Survived

Of all the terrible places in the world to take a dog, the Antarctic has to be near the top of the list. But, as the movie The Thing taught us, sled dogs are useful there and they can handle the weather better than humans. 

In 1957, a Japanese team went on an expedition to the foreboding continent and took a team of dogs with them. The movie 8 Below is based on what happened. The situation went bad, and the team had to be airlifted out, but the team of 15 dogs could not be taken. They were left there, chained up, with just enough food for a few days. It was believed someone would be back in a couple of days to rescue them.

As you might guess, things turned out badly for most of the dogs. Seven died on the chain and more vanished. But 11 months later, when the expedition finally returned, they found two dogs named Taro and Jiro had survived by themselves. 

We’ll never know exactly how those dogs survived for nearly a year, but they probably struggled a lot and learned how to hunt penguins. 

8. A Dog Took on Five Pirates and Survived

Pirates aren’t something you hear about a lot anymore, but they do still exist. In 2013, property developer Peter Lee and his wife were sailing off the coast of Venezuela when pirates attacked. Five men, four armed with guns, boarded the vessel to take it over. Lee was tied up while the raiders stole cash, equipment, and jewelry.

Peter and his wife were not alone on board, however. They also had a dog named Kankuntu with them. The Lees had been sailing around the world on their yacht and had picked up the dog in Africa when they started their trip. 

Kankuntu was not a fan of pirates. Despite being a mid-sized animal of 50 lbs, he attacked the pirates to protect his people. The pirates shot the dog, stabbed him in the back, and left him for dead.

When the pirates left, Lee’s wife untied him and Lee removed the bullet from his dog, patched up the stab wound, and took him to a vet. He recovered within a couple of days.

7. The Romanov’s Dog Joy Survived the Family Massacre 

The Romanovs were the last royal family in Russia and most of them met a very bitter and bloody end. While Bolsheviks executed many members of the family, several of them went into exile to survive, though the Tsar and his close family were all killed. The family dog, Joy, avoided the fate of the rest of the family but also had to live in exile.

Joy was a King Charles Spaniel owned by the Tsar’s son Alexei. When the family went into exile, they were tracked and taken to a cellar where they were shot. Other dogs were killed with them but Joy escaped. 

The dog was later found by a guard who took pity on the animal and brought it home. It was later taken from Russia entirely on a trip to Britain where it was presented as a gift to the British Royal Family. Joy lived the rest of his life at Windsor Castle, pampered but exiled. 

6. Two Different Guide Dogs Survived 9/11 

September 11, 2001, was the deadliest terrorist attack in US history and nearly 3,000 people died. Some people were able to survive what happened, however, and that includes a pair of completely unrelated Guide Dogs.

Michael Hingson was at work in the World Trade Center on the 78th floor the day the planes hit. He was 18 floors below impact. Blind since birth, Hingson had to rely on his dog Roselle to help him escape. 

Roselle helped Hingson down the full 78 floors as smoke and debris and panicking humans filled the space with them. When they reached the ground, Tower Two was falling and Roselle led him away as the sound of concrete and steel crashed down. The dog took him to the subway and then another 40 blocks to a friend’s house. 

At the same time, Omar Rivera was on floor 71 with his dog Salty. Like Hingson, Rivera took his dog into the stairwell. As it flooded with people, Rivera worried it was too crowded and too much for his dog to handle. At one point he let Salty’s harness go on purpose in the hopes the dog would save itself. Salty refused to leave Rivera’s side. He led the man to the street and away to safety.

5. Two Strays in Afghanistan Saved 50 Soldiers From a Suicide Bomber and Came to the US After

Life in a war zone is not good for anyone, humans or dogs. In Afghanistan, there were casualties all over in an ugly situation but dogs made a difference sometimes in surprising ways. In February 2010, stray dogs that had made a home of a US Army base helped prevent serious casualties in a suicide bombing. 

Rufus, Sasha, and Target, three dogs living with US soldiers, stopped a suicide bomber on his way into the building. While the Americans slept, the dogs attacked and barked at a man armed with explosives, keeping him out of the building. The man set off the device outside, resulting in five injuries but no other human deaths. Sasha, unfortunately, didn’t survive. 

After the fact, a lot of effort was put into the men adopting the Rufus and Target and bringing them stateside from Afghanistan. Crowdfunding helped raise $21,000 to bring the dogs to America to reunite them with two of the soldiers who survived the failed bombing. 

Rufus found his home in Georgia and we wish there was a happy ending to the story for Target, but things took a wrong turn for him. The dog was picked up by local Animal Control and because of a mistake, Target was mistaken for a different dog and euthanized before his owner could even come looking for him.

4. Plenty of Dogs Have Thrived Around Chernobyl  

Most of us would not consider Chernobyl an ideal location to live or thrive or even visit, really. That’s just how humans think, though. Animals have no reason to know why Chernobyl might be bad and, as a result, the area is actually bustling with life. 

Among the many creatures that call the area around Chernobyl home are dogs. Lots of strays made a home there after residents had to abandon the place. Free from human involvement, they carved out a nice life for themselves. In 2018, 200 dogs from the exclusion zone were put up for adoption in America after each was monitored for things like radiation poisoning.

Because at least 250 dogs were living in the area, with more wandering in and out all the time, a worker had been hired to kill them. That worker refused to kill them, so the adoption idea was a plan B.

Of those that remain, the dogs are being studied to determine the effects of long-term radiation on their genetics as generation after generation of dogs continue to grow and survive there. 

3. A Dog Kept a Toddler Alive in Siberia for 11 Days 

You’ve probably heard stories of dogs getting out of the house, going missing, and coming back weeks or even months later. Sometimes they’re discovered on the other side of the country. Dogs can be pretty crafty survivalists when backed into a corner. The story of a dog that survived 11 days in the woods is therefore not super impressive. But how about a story about a dog that survived 11 days while also caring for a 4-year-old child?

In 2014, Karina Chikatova, who was described as either three or four at the time of her disappearance, went missing in Siberia. The girl was trying to follow her father as he traveled to another village but the man was unaware his daughter had gone after him. She eventually lost him in the wild and was stranded with just her dog. It was four days later before anyone knew she was gone because her mother thought the father had taken her and the father assumed she was at home.

A rescue team of over 100 people went looking for her and they even used helicopters and drones. At one point, the rescue had to be suspended when they ran across a bear.

After 9 days the dog returned home and people assumed the worst. But then the dog guided them back to the girl who, though she had lost weight, was actually in relatively good condition. It’s believed she survived by eating berries, drinking water from a stream, and using the dog for warmth at night. Had the dog not gone back to find help, she might never have been found.

2. The First Two Russian Dogs Sent to Space Survived

Much has been written over the years about Russia’s space program and its treatment of animals. The Russians launched dogs, mice, and monkeys into space. Many people know the story of Laika, but she’s often credited as the first dog sent into space when you really need to get more technical with what that means. Laika was the first dog sent into full orbit, but other dogs were launched before her.

Laika’s story is a tragic one, and she was sent up to space with no hope she would ever survive. But the Russians sent two strays into space before her that did survive. The female dogs were named Dezik and Tsygan and both went into sub-orbital flight and survived.

Dezik would be sent on a second flight that she did not survive but Tysgan was lucky enough to be adopted by a Soviet physicist and she managed to live a long, healthy life afterward.

1. Odin the Dog Survived a California Wildfire

Wildfires have ravaged California on an almost yearly basis for far too long. The damage caused by these fires has been in the billions, and that doesn’t even account for the loss of life, both human and animal.

In 2017, Roland Hendel and his family had to flee the fires approaching his home in Santa Rosa. The winds had turned, and they had only minutes to grab what they could and go. One of the things he tried to take with him was his dog, Odin. 

Hendel had many animals and rounded up those he could but Odin, who had guarded the family’s goats, wouldn’t get into the car no matter how hard Hendel tried to make him. With no time to keep up the fight, he had to leave the dog and the goats behind.

Fast forward to days later when they were allowed to return home. Instead of the grisly scene they expected, they found Odin burned but still alive and all 8 of their rescue goats which he had kept safe from the fires, along with some wild deer.

In the lead-up to World War II, it was well understood that the Third Reich was the most formidable force of science and technology that the world had ever seen. Blending occult lore and magic with cutting-edge engineering and physics, Adolf Hitler sought to master matter and spirit in much the same way as he sought to master the nations of the world.

So formidable did Hitler’s scientific might seem that many American business interests desired to ally with Nazi Germany rather than resist this growing global superpower. Chagrined with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s socialist New Deal, prominent American businessmen even attempted to enlist the aid of decorated war hero Major General Smedley Butler in their plot to replace Roosevelt’s administration with a fascist American government.

As Nazi Germany grew in territory and influence, Hitler became increasingly envious of American manufacturing power. He dreamed of an unstoppable union of German occult science and American brute force that would solidify the Third Reich’s stranglehold over the planet’s future. Though history remembers Hitler as having lost World War II, his unholy fantasy was destined to come to fruition.

Unfazed by the war crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich during the war, leaders of the American military and industrial sectors imported dozens of top Nazi scientists to work in America after the victory of the Allies in World War II. Called Operation Paperclip, this secret initiative led to numerous medical and engineering breakthroughs, including the development of the Saturn V rocket and the founding of NASA.

In many ways, the Operation Paperclip scientists were directly responsible for the unquestioned military and economic supremacy enjoyed by America in the postwar years, yet their Nazi past was generally overlooked or whitewashed by the American media. In the following list, we’ll tell the stories of 10 Nazi scientists who survived the war and flourished as American assets.

10 Walter Schieber

Walter Schieber was a critical player in the Third Reich’s wartime production. His prewar experience in textile manufacturing made him immensely useful to the National Socialist Party, and in 1943, Hitler awarded him with the War Merit Cross.

After the war, Schieber caught the eye of Charles Loucks, a brigadier general with the US Army Chemical Corps. Loucks was assigned to the German town of Heidelberg to work on the development of nerve agents like tabun and sarin gas. Rather than being repelled by Schieber’s past, Loucks was drawn to this Nazi war criminal for his close connections with Heinrich Himmler and his intimate knowledge of the gases used by the Third Reich during the war.^[1]

Schieber worked for the Chemical Corps for 10 years and later became an asset of the CIA. Since he was useful to the American government, Schieber was never prosecuted for his war crimes. In fact, he played a pivotal role in the development of the sarin gas that has subsequently been used by the US military.

9 Hubertus Strughold

Known as the “Father of Space Medicine,” Hubertus Strughold helped the United States Air Force and NASA develop many of the principles of medical care in space that are still in practice today. For years, the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) gave an annual award named after Strughold to prominent contributors in the field of space medicine. But when his suspicious connections to Nazi war criminals came to light, AsMA struck Strughold’s name from the award.^[2]

Throughout his long career as a respected scientist in the United States, Strughold fervently denied any knowledge of the war crimes committed by the Nazis. However, he was implicated during the Nuremberg trials as having involvement with the atrocities committed at Dachau, and he spoke in detail at a Nazi conference in 1942 about the infamous “cold” experiments.

Beloved by his colleagues and students, many found it hard to believe that Strughold had lied about his involvement in Nazi human experimentation. But the evidence suggests that Strughold’s expertise in keeping people alive in space was derived at least in part from his intimate knowledge of just how much the human body can endure under extreme stress.

8 Dr. Kurt Blome

Ostensibly, Dr. Kurt Blome was Hitler’s head of cancer research. But in reality, he was in charge of the development of Nazi biological warfare capabilities.

Blome stood trial at Nuremberg for performing euthanasia and conducting human experimentation, but he was acquitted due to the intervention of the American military. The United States government wanted to expand on Blome’s intimate knowledge of human biological weaknesses to create even deadlier nerve agents.^[3]

Blome’s US Army Chemical Corps personnel file makes no mention of his involvement in human experimentation. He lived out the rest of his life in West Germany working on secret projects for the American government and remained active in the right-wing Germany Party until his death in 1969.

7 Arthur Rudolph

When Arthur Rudolph was brought into the United States in 1947 as part of Operation Paperclip, he was noted to be an “ardent Nazi,” but all mention of his war crimes was omitted from official reports. However, documents from two years later confirm that Rudolph had been designated as a war criminal by Allied officials.

In 1961, Arthur Rudolph joined fellow Nazi Wernher von Braun at NASA to design the Saturn V rocket. Without Rudolph’s rocketry genius, the Apollo project would never have come to be.

Though the American government was undoubtedly grateful for his service, the Justice Department charged Rudolph in 1984 with working thousands of slaves to death while overseeing the development of the V-2 rocket during World War II. Rather than face charges, Rudolph agreed to turn in his American citizenry and leave the country.^[4]

When it comes to American aerospace programs in the postwar era, it seems like asking for a history without Nazi influence is a bridge too far. We must simply content ourselves with our gratitude that NASA elected to avoid using slave labor as an expediency when paving the way to the 1969 Moon landing.

6 Magnus von Braun

Though admittedly less famous than his brother Wernher, Magnus von Braun certainly enjoyed a degree of infamy among members of the American military. They labeled him as a “dangerous German Nazi” who posed a greater threat to national security than “half a dozen discredited SS generals.” Serving as his brother’s personal assistant, Magnus negotiated the surrender of the German assembled rocket team in 1945.

After proving himself just as capable as his brother when it came to engineering, Magnus was welcomed by the US Army personnel at Fort Bliss, Texas, with a mixture of pragmatic enthusiasm and wary skepticism. Their qualms about the younger von Braun were quickly proven to be justified when Magnus was caught attempting to sell a brick of platinum that he’d stolen from the base to a jeweler in El Paso.

The incident was hushed up to avoid garnering any negative press directed at Operation Paperclip. Wernher von Braun meted out justice for the infraction personally by inflicting a brutal beating on his brother. His reputation seemingly untarnished by the incident, Magnus went on to enjoy a long and prosperous career with Chrysler before retiring to the Arizona desert.^[5]

5 Dieter Grau

As a member of the von Braun rocket group, Dieter Grau was an integral player in the development of the V-2 rocket during World War II. After the war, Grau was sent to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. He served as quality director on a number of rocket projects spearheaded by Wernher von Braun on behalf of the US government, including the development of the Saturn V rocket.

Before his work for the US Army and NASA, Dieter Grau performed quality control of a somewhat different kind. During his time as a Nazi asset in Germany, Grau was briefly posted in Mittelwerk, the underground slave labor rocket factory run by Arthur Rudolph.

At Mittelwerk, Grau employed his expertise in “debugging,” or the detection of worker sabotage. The slaves that he outed at Mittelwerk were subjected to a special punishment reserved for saboteurs: public hanging in the factory’s main hall by a crane that was raised slowly to extend the anguish.^[6]

Grau lived to be 101 and was fondly remembered by his American colleagues for his attention to detail in everything that he did.

4 Walter Dornberger

Unlike other Operation Paperclip Nazi assets who got away with their war crimes scot-free, Walter Dornberger saw prison time for the use of slave labor in the production of V-2 rockets. But Dornberger, who had reached the rank of lieutenant general under Hitler’s regime, only spent two years behind bars before he was released by the American military.

He was subsequently taken to the United States to rejoin his fellow Nazi rocket scientists, and SS General Dornberger was soon elevated to the post of vice president of the Bell Aircraft Corporation.

During his career as a Nazi general, Dornberger had fired over 1,000 V-2 rockets on residential areas of London. Dornberger was also there the day that the first V-2 rocket was launched in 1937, on which occasion he asked fellow Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun if he recognized the momentousness of the event that had just transpired. Von Braun responded, “Yes, today the spaceship was born.”

Dornberger believed that it was the Third Reich’s obsession with space travel that led to Hitler’s defeat. Yet when it came time to build space exploration vehicles for his new American benefactors, Dornberger was more than happy to oblige. General Dornberger lived out the rest of his life seemingly unhaunted by his past. He died in his homeland of Germany at age 84.^[7]

3 Hermann Oberth

It was Hermann Oberth’s pioneering work in rocket design that originally inspired Wernher von Braun to apply himself to the study of rocketry. When Oberth first posited the idea that rockets could operate in the vacuum of space, he was ridiculed.

But when he developed the German V-2 rocket alongside von Braun, his theories took an important step toward validation. And when Oberth rejoined von Braun in America to develop the Saturn V rocket, his dreams finally took flight.^[8]

While Oberth’s contributions to rocket science are undeniable, other aspects of his legacy are more open to interpretation. Potentially apocryphal quotes attributed to Oberth seem to indicate that this Nazi scientist was under the impression that human spaceflight capabilities weren’t developed by human beings alone. When asked who had assisted humanity in our quest to reach for the stars, Oberth supposedly replied, “The people of other worlds!”

Regardless of whether this quote is accurate, Oberth is on record as a firm believer that UFOs are spaceships from another solar system. Was this belief just a random supposition, or was this acclaimed Nazi aerospace scientist privy to evidence of extraterrestrial life kept outside the public sphere of knowledge?

2 Kurt Debus

Next to Wernher von Braun, Kurt Debus is the most famous former Nazi to grace the ranks of American rocketry’s hall of fame. Debus was the director of the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida from 1962 to 1974.

But in another life, he was Hitler’s flight test director during the development of the V-2 rocket. Despite what we know about the horrors of the V-2 development program, Debus was never held accountable for his past and he still enjoys a glowing posthumous reputation.

Debus was part of the group led by Magnus von Braun that negotiated the surrender of the German rocket scientists at the end of the war. Almost immediately, Debus was whisked away to begin work at Fort Bliss. He was soon transferred to Huntsville, Alabama, to oversee the construction of the NASA facilities at Cape Canaveral.^[9]

With Debus at the helm, NASA successfully launched 13 Saturn V rockets into space, including the rocket that carried the Apollo 11 astronauts to the Moon. Yet Debus would never have been able to make these great American achievements possible had it not been for his involvement in forcing slaves to build rockets of war for the Nazi empire.

1 Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun was quickly recognized by Nazi authorities as being a physics and engineering genius. But von Braun was anything but bookish in nature.

His potent charisma and visionary prowess made him the perfect candidate for organizing large-scale production operations, such as the development of the V-2 rocket. At age 25, von Braun was in charge of a team of 400 people. By the time he was 30, his team had swelled to 5,000 strong.^[10]

During the war, Wernher von Braun visited the slave factory at Mittelwerk at least a dozen times. On one occasion, he toured the abysmal sleeping quarters for the forced laborers. Yet, during his tenure in the American space program, he did his best to distance himself from the atrocities committed by the Nazis by putting forth the position that there was nothing that he could have done to help.

Fully aware that hundreds of slaves were dying to bring his dreams to life, von Braun still feverishly dedicated himself day and night to the development of the V-2 rocket. Without von Braun, it’s doubtful that the Saturn V rocket would have ever seen the light of day. But because of von Braun, endless ranks of forced laborers toiled and died in the darkness.

At what awful price did America buy her incontestable supremacy in space?

We all know human beings can survive some pretty harrowing things. There are plenty of gunshot, car accident and cancer survivors, after all. But some stories of resilience and luck take things to an entirely new level. From surviving two atomic bombs to falling 6 miles from an exploded plane without a parachute and living to tell the tale, these are some of the craziest things human beings have actually survived. 

10. Two Nukes

In 1945, Tsotomu Yamaguchi, a Japanese naval engineer, was in Hiroshima for a business assignment. On the morning of August 6, the city was rocked by the detonation of the first atomic bomb. Being a mere 3 kilometers from the epicenter, the sheer force of the explosion knocked him off his feet, leaving him with burns and temporary blindness. But, astonishingly, he survived.

Determined to get back to his family, Yamaguchi made the journey to his hometown the following day. And as if scripted by a dramatic twist of fate, said hometown was none other than the target of the second bomb – Nagasaki. On August 9, while Yamaguchi was explaining the horrors of Hiroshima to his disbelieving employer, the skies above them lit up once more as the second atomic bomb was deployed, killing tens of thousands in an instant. But once again, Yamaguchi survived. Living until the ripe age of 93, he remains the only officially recognized individual to have lived through both atomic bombings. 

9. Seven lightning strikes

Ever have one of those days where you feel like the universe is out to get you? Well, you’ve got nothing on Roy “Human Lightning Rod” Sullivan, a park ranger in Virginia. His claim to misfortune: being struck by lightning not once, not twice, but seven times between 1942 and 1977. In case you’re wondering, the odds of getting struck once in the US are 1 in 15,300. The odds of getting struck seven times? Try 4.5 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Yes, you read that right. Now, of course, being a park ranger means these figures don’t quite apply like they would for, say, an accountant. But it’s not like every park ranger is getting fried like a mozzarella stick on the regular, so Sullivan is still quite an anomaly. 

Each strike came with its own wild tale. There was that time lightning set his hair on fire, prompting him to start carrying a pitcher of water around. Another time, it hit him while he was inside his truck, badly injuring his ankle. Yet, like a character straight out of a comic book, Roy always managed to bounce back. 

8. A crude self-amputation after being trapped in a canyon

An avid outdoorsman, Aron Ralston was on one of his solo canyoning trips in Utah in 2003 when the unthinkable happened: a boulder shifted and trapped his right arm, pinning him against a rock wall. With minimal supplies, no one around, and no means to communicate for help, he was in nightmarish straits.

Days went by as he rationed his food and water, recording video messages for his family, believing he might not make it out alive. But five days into his ordeal, Ralston had an epiphany. If he wanted to survive, he’d need to take matters, quite literally, into his own hands. With a dull multitool and sheer determination, he amputated his trapped arm, rappelled down a 65-foot wall, and hiked out until he found help. His story of unwavering grit became the inspiration for the movie 127 Hours, and though it’s a cringe-worthy tale, it’s also a remarkable testament to the lengths one will go to in the fight for survival. Oh, and a nice reminder to never go canyoning alone.

7. Falling out of an exploded plane with no parachute

In 1972, Vesna Vulovi?, a Yugoslavian flight attendant, was working aboard JAT Flight 367 when the plane exploded mid-air due to what we suspect today was a terrorist bomb. Plunging from an altitude of 33,330 feet (about 6.3 miles), she found herself in the middle of an unintentional free-fall, nestled amid the wreckage. So just to recap here: Vesna was inside a planet that exploded more than six miles above ground, and was thrown onto a mountain without a parachute. As evidenced by her inclusion on this list, she survived, thanks to the wreckage cushioning her impact when it struck the snow-covered side of a mountain. Most comic book characters couldn’t pull that off.

Although she did suffer multiple injuries, including broken bones and a temporary coma, Vesna made an almost full recovery and even continued to fly. She also holds the Guinness World Record for the highest fall survived without a parachute.

6. Being trapped underwater for three days

Imagine being trapped underwater, in the suffocating confines of a sunken ship. This was the terrifying reality for Harrison Okene in 2013. Working as a cook on the tugboat Jascon-4, disaster struck when heavy swells capsized the vessel off the Nigerian coast, plunging it to the ocean’s floor, 100 feet below the surface. The majority of the crew didn’t make it, but Harrison, through a twist of fate, found himself inside a small bubble of air, one of the ship’s few remaining dry pockets.

For roughly 72 hours, Harrison survived with no food and little drinkable water. Encased in total darkness, he could hear marine life, including the distant sounds of large predators, outside the sunken ship. Every moment was a battle against despair, creeping cold, dehydration, and the gradual buildup of harmful nitrogen in the tiny air pocket that was keeping him alive. His situation seemed utterly hopeless, but a dive team sent to recover bodies in the wreckage found him before it was too late and brought him safely to the surface. There’s even some incredible video footage of the moment they find him alive. 

5. Rabies without a vaccine

One of the internet’s favorite facts is that rabies is universally fatal once symptoms appear. Well, almost universal. Jeanna Giese, a teenager from Wisconsin, managed to rewrite medical history books with her unbelievable survival story. In 2004, at the age of 15, Jeanna was bitten by a bat at her church but thought little of the small wound and didn’t seek immediate medical treatment.

It was only a month later, after developing severe symptoms, that she was diagnosed with rabies. By then, conventional medicine offered little hope. But Dr. Rodney Willoughby Jr. devised an experimental treatment, sometimes referred to as the “Milwaukee Protocol.” This involved placing Jeanna into a medically-induced coma and administering a cocktail of antiviral drugs. The hope was that by slowing down her metabolic rate, her immune system would have a fighting chance against the rabies virus. Against all odds, the gamble paid off. Jeanna emerged as the first person known to have survived rabies without receiving the vaccine immediately after exposure. 

4. 133 days at sea without supplies

In 1942, Poon Lim, a Chinese sailor aboard the British merchant ship SS Ben Lomond, found himself in just about the worst imaginable scenario when his ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat, plunging him into the vast South Atlantic with just a life jacket and a life raft. Alone and miles away from any land, Poon Lim had to muster every ounce of his survival instinct.

Instead of panicking, he demonstrated resourcefulness that few could match. Using his watch strap, he fashioned a makeshift fishing hook, and over time, he managed to catch fish and even birds as sustenance. To ensure he had fresh water, he devised a method to collect rainwater. On more than one occasion, Poon Lim had to fend off sharks, once even using the water from his makeshift reservoir to survive an encounter. For 133 long days, he survived the elements, hunger, and isolation. His extraordinary tale of survival came to an end when Brazilian fishermen spotted him, having drifted more than 3,000 miles from his ship’s original route. Poon Lim’s story stands as a testament to human resilience and the ability to innovate even in the direst of circumstances.

3. Multiple plane crashes

Before he even reached adulthood, Austin Hatch faced not one, but two deadly plane crashes, both of which claimed the lives of multiple family members. In 2003, the first crash took the lives of his mother, brother, and sister. Miraculously, Austin and his father survived. The pair leaned on each other for support, working together to rebuild their lives.

But fate would deal another cruel hand. In 2011, just days after Austin had secured a promising basketball scholarship with the University of Michigan, he and his father were involved in a second plane crash. This time, Austin lost his father and stepmother. He himself was left in a coma for eight weeks, with injuries that cast doubt on his ever walking again, let alone playing basketball. But Austin, driven by an unyielding spirit, defied the odds. With rigorous therapy and sheer determination, he not only walked again but made his way back to the basketball court, fulfilling his dream of playing for Michigan. Today, miraculously, Austin has a family of his own. 

2. Falling off a mountain

Few survival stories in the realm of mountaineering are as harrowing and legendary as Joe Simpson’s ordeal in the Peruvian Andes. The misadventure began in 1985 when Simpson, alongside fellow climber Simon Yates, embarked on a mission to climb the previously unconquered West Face of Siula Grande. The ascent was successful, but disaster struck on the way down. Joe broke his leg, a nightmare scenario in such a treacherous environment.

Given their situation, the pair made the agonizing decision to attempt a controlled lower with the help of ropes. But during the process, Joe ended up hanging over a deep crevasse. With the weight threatening to pull both men down and no way to communicate, Yates made a heart-wrenching decision straight out of a disaster movie, severing the rope to save himself, believing he was sending Joe to his death. Miraculously, Joe survived the fall, landing on a narrow ice shelf inside the crevasse. Severely injured and without food or water, he embarked on a three-day crawl back to base camp. His eventual rescue was nothing short of miraculous. 

1. Three deadly maritime disasters

We’re not sure if she’s absurdly lucky or absurdly unlucky. We suppose it depends on how you look at it. All we know is that ocean liner stewardess and nurse Violet Jessup didn’t just survive one major shipwreck; she lived through three of the most famous maritime disasters of the 20th century.

In 1911, Jessup was aboard the RMS Olympic when it collided with the HMS Hawke. Though the Olympic suffered damage, there were no fatalities and the ship managed to return to port safely. But she wasn’t out of the woods yet. In 1912, she was a crew member on the ill-fated RMS Titanic. We all know how that voyage ended, but Jessup survived the sinking by securing a spot in Lifeboat 16. A few years later, during World War I, she served on the HMHS Britannic, which, after striking a nautical mine, sank in the Aegean Sea. Once again, Jessup escaped in a lifeboat.

Remarkably, these harrowing experiences didn’t deter her. She continued to work on ships and later penned her memoirs, offering a perspective on these maritime tragedies that, thankfully, no one else in history can really relate to.

The line between life and death is a fine one, and it is sometimes difficult to identify. Although one government has found it necessary to warn its citizens to refrain from playing doctor by trying to determine whether a family member has died, even physicians, nurses, paramedics, and other professionals sometimes have trouble pinpointing the cause of death or, indeed, even whether death has actually occurred. The thought that medical experts could pronounce living people dead may seem astounding, but this declaration actually happens much more often than we might think.

As this list of 10 people who survived their own “deaths” indicates, it’s not only Mark Twain who had the occasion to protest that “the report of my death was an exaggeration.” Unfortunately, Twain’s quip aside, such incidents are, even for those who manage to survive their own reported “deaths,” rarely, if ever, amusing.

10 Notable People Who Foresaw Their Own Deaths

10 Timesha Beauchamp

In August 2020, after being declared dead, 20-year-old Timesha Beauchamp was dispatched to a Michigan funeral home. An employee, preparing to embalm her, unzipped the body bag in which she’d been placed, only to see her “corpse” staring back at him. Geoffrey Fieger, the family’s attorney said, “They were about to embalm her. . . . Had she not had her eyes open, they would have begun draining her blood.”

Paramedics, responding to the family’s call for assistance upon finding Beauchamp “unresponsive,” pronounced her dead when they could not revive her after she stopped breathing. She was hospitalized in critical condition, on a ventilator.

The responders insisted that they followed proper protocols, and officials said that Beauchamp’s undisclosed medical history was the reason her “body” had been released without additional forensics examination.

The city of Southfield, Michigan, has been sued for $50 million for Beauchamp’s wrongful death declaration, and the four paramedics who were on the scene are also being sued. Beauchamp’s shortage of oxygen inside the body bag, the lawsuit contends, caused her to suffer brain damage.

9 Analia Bouter’s Newborn Baby

A supposedly stillborn baby lay in an Argentine morgue for 12 hours, a victim, the infant’s mother, Analia Bouter, says, of hospital negligence. Fifteen minutes after the child’s birth, on April 3, 2012, she was closed inside a coffin and left for dead in the hospital’s refrigerated morgue.

During a prayer by their daughter’s side, Analia and her husband Fabian Veron opened the coffin. Inside, their child was breathing, and the premature baby was subsequently pronounced to be in critical, but stable, condition. The couple named their daughter Luz Milagros, or Miracles.

As a result of the near-fatal mistake, five of the hospital’s employees were suspended. The hospital’s administrator is at a loss for an explanation. “The baby was attended to by obstetricians, gynaecologists and a neonatologist,” he said. “They all reached the same conclusion, that this girl was stillborn.”

8 Charles Crawford

The January 21, 1901, issue of The New York Times reported the strange occurrence of a “Live Man Taken to the Morgue.” According to the item, Charles Crawford, who’d shot his wife Sarah before shooting himself, was taken to the morgue, after being pronounced dead. There, Joseph Murphy, an assistant, discovered that Crawford was still among the living.

After an ambulance first transported Crawford to St. Michael’s Hospital, Sister Soherta visited the vehicle. Her quick examination of him confirmed the suspicion of the police officer in charge: Crawford had died. His body was then transported to Mullins morgue. There, the assistant saw at once that Crawford was alive. Indeed, the “dead” man spoke to Murphy, as Crawford was transferred from the ambulance to a truck used to convey corpses into the morgue.

Left inside the cold morgue of the unheated building, during the dead of winter, Crawford was sure to have died, the newspaper article pointed out, had he not been rescued, and he was lucky, indeed, that Murphy was in attendance the night he was brought to the morgue, because ambulances are not attended by physicians and no doctor was on duty at the hospital the night that Crawford arrived by ambulance, since the hospital used the services of doctors on call.

7 Walter “Snowball” Williams

At age 78, Walter “Snowball” Williams woke inside a body bag after being declared dead at his home in Lexington, Kentucky, in February 2014. He tried to kick himself free, and, the next morning, a funeral home’s employees were astonished to see that the dead man was alive. At the nearby hospital to which he was taken, he was declared to be in stable condition, despite his harrowing ordeal. According to the coroner, Williams’s faulty pacemaker caused the false reading.

With his family, Williams’s nephew, Eddie Hester, who had watched his uncle being zipped inside the body bag, celebrated his uncle’s return from the “dead.” Williams, who had been scheduled to be embalmed the day after his arrival at the funeral home was also thrilled to be alive.

6 Valdelucio de Oliveira Goncalves

Two hours after being declared dead of respiratory failure and multiple-organ failure in August 2014, 54-year-old Valdelucio de Oliveira Goncalves, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, was spotted moving inside a body bag. His brother, who came to the morgue with other family members, to dress Goncalves, discovered that the supposedly dead man was breathing. His feet were tied, and his nose and ears were plugged with cotton.

The Menandro de Farias Hospital, in Bahia state capital Salvador, initiated an inquiry into the incident. “Hospital directors [would] meet the team who saw the patient to clarify the course of action taken,” a spokesperson for Bahia’s health department said.

5 Larry Donnell Green

Initially, neither paramedics nor the medical examiner were able to detect that Larry Donnell Green was alive. It wasn’t until after he’d been declared dead, placed inside a body bag, transported to the morgue, and deposited in a freezer that he was found to be alive.

Green, who, at age 29, had been struck by a car on a highway in Franklin County, North Carolina, in January 2005, is said, by his parents, to have suffered irreversible brain damage in the accident, resulting in thousands of dollars of medical bills. His family has sued the county medical examiner and the former emergency workers for $20,000 in compensatory and punitive damages for negligence and emotional distress, and they want to ensure that no other families are subjected to the pain and suffering their family has experienced.

Paramedics Randy Kearney, Paul Kilmer, Cathryn Lamell and Pam Hayes, and volunteer emergency medical technician Ronnie Woode were suspended with pay. Green was transferred to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, where he was placed on life support and listed as being in critical condition.

He was discovered to be alive when medical examiner J. B. Perdue examined his body while certifying the cause of Green’s death. Perdue ordered the same paramedics who’d brought Green to the morgue to take him to the hospital.

“There has been a terrible error made and we are on a fast track to getting these problems corrected, so we don’t face such a situation in the future,” Franklin County Manager Chris Courdriet admitted, adding, “It’s an unfortunate happening—no doubt about it.”

Thirty-six-year-old Tamuel Jackson, who struck Green, faced charges.

4 Premature Baby

Apparently, the premature baby didn’t like being in a morgue refrigerator. The infant began crying and moving when undertakers removed him from cold storage at a hospital in La Margarita in the Mexican city of Puebla on October 22, 2020, to hand him over to his parents for the funeral. The child’s father urged the baby, who was born only 23 weeks into the mother’s pregnancy, to “carry on fighting.” The little survivor was assigned to a stay in an intensive care neo-natal unit to be kept under observation.

Miguel Angel Flores, the owner of Funeraria Flores, and one of the undertakers who had come to pick up the baby’s body, said, “We called the father over and he also saw it was crying and so we got the doctor who had signed the death certificate to come urgently.” Flores was amazed that, after six hours inside the refrigerator, the baby was yet alive. “I can’t understand how he didn’t die while he was there,” he said. The refrigeration unit, he observed, was “normally used to keep the limbs of amputees.”

An investigation of the incident is underway.

3 South African Man

After suffering from an asthma attack in July 2011, a 60-year-old South African man’s family assumed he had died. Instead of calling paramedics, they summoned workers from a local mortuary company. Awakening more than two hours later, inside a refrigerated compartment, the “dead” man began screaming, but his shrieks didn’t summon assistance. Instead, the mortuary workers fled, terrified that they were hearing a ghost.

They returned, however, after gathering reinforcements, and the group decided to open the refrigerated compartment. Inside, the “ghost” was confused and shivering, and the workers called an ambulance. Six hours later, after being held at the hospital, under observation, the man was declared stable and sent home.

Sizwe Kupelo, the spokesman for the Eastern Cape Health Department, said, “The temperature in the refrigerator is designed to keep corpses from decomposing. So you can imagine it’s definitely not appropriate for a live person.” And the 60-year-old man’s suffering isn’t likely to have ended, even now, Kupelo suggested. “At the village I bet the rumor is going around that a ghost is amongst the villagers. . . . There will probably be family members that will refuse to stay the night with him now.”

In publicizing the incident, the government reminded its citizens that only qualified medical authorities should pronounce anyone dead. It’s a message that needs to be heard, apparently. The family’s suspicion that their relative had died was verified by the morgue’s employees. Ayanda Maqolo, who owns the morgue, said his driver, who’d gone to the family’s home to pick up the supposed remains, “examined the body, checked his pulse, [and] looked for a heartbeat, but there was nothing.” Maqolo himself had thought the 60-yer-old asthmatic “was about 80.”

2 Rosa Celestrino de Assis

Sixty-year-old Rosa Celestrino de Assis, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, also spent several hours inside a body bag deposited inside a refrigerated morgue in Hospital Estadual Adao Pereira Nunes, where she was receiving treatment for a lung infection. Her daughter Rosangela Celestrino was called to the scene to identify her mother’s body. When Rosangela gave her mother a final hug, she “could feel her breathing,” she said, and she screamed, “My mom is alive!” The looks the others in attendance gave her suggested they thought she was “crazy,” she said.

At 7:20 pm, on September 23, 2011, during tests related to her lung infection, a doctor had pronounced Rosa dead, and she was carted off to the morgue. At 10:00 pm that night, Rosangela pronounced her alive, and the “dead” woman was taken to the hospital’s intensive care unit. The nurse who first suspected that Rosa had died was fired. The doctor who pronounced her dead resigned.

1 Tom Sancomb

Unable to contact her 46-year-old boyfriend Tom Sancomb for two days, his girlfriend asked police to conduct a welfare check on him. An officer entered Sancomb’s residence with the apartment manager and found that Sancomb had collapsed. Fire department paramedics did not attempt to resuscitate Sancomb, who was “cold to the touch and in rigor.” He was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:10 am, on May 19, 2015, and forensic investigator Genevieve M. Penn called Sancomb’s brother, John, to deliver the bad news. John asked that an autopsy be conducted to determine the cause of his brother’s death.

At 3:00 pm, when a team arrived to transport Sancomb to the morgue, they noticed that Sancomb was breathing, and he was moving an arm and a leg. Later, his pulse returned, and he was transported to Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee. What had caused the strange series of events? The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s “heavily redacted” report deleted the findings, and the hospital’s spokesman, Evan Solochek, refused to disclose the information due to federal privacy laws. Sancomb’s condition, whatever it is, improves daily, his brother said.

Top 10 Fascinating Deathbed Moments

About The Author: An English instructor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Gary L. Pullman lives south of Area 51, which, according to his family and friends, explains “a lot.” His four-book series, An Adventure of the Old West, is available on Amazon.

While millions perished under the Nazi regime throughout Europe, thousands survived to tell their stories and help to prosecute the cruel perpetrators of the Holocaust who escaped at the end of the war. While every survivor has their story to tell, some went on to lead successful lives in the public eye as politicians, writers, playwrights, producers, and actors.

While society chose to celebrate these remarkable few, their work and contributions to the world of entertainment and justice have helped preserve the history of what happened to them, hopefully ensuring history never repeats itself. Because it would be inappropriate to rank these people, one way or the other, they are presented here in alphabetical order, so here are ten amazing celebrities who survived the Holocaust.

See Also: 10 Amazing Ways People Survived The Holocaust

10 Robert Clary—Singer, Writer, & Actor

Robert Clary was born Robert Max Wilderman in Paris, France, back in 1926. He began a life in showbusiness early on, having started singing professionally on French radio at the age of 12. By 1942, he was deported to the Nazi concentration camp at Ottmuth, Poland. He didn’t remain there for too long, and soon after his forearm was tattooed “A5714,” he was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp where he was made to sing for a gathering of SS soldiers every other Sunday. “Singing, entertaining, and being in kind of good health at my age, that’s why I survived. I was very immature and young and not really fully realizing what situation I was involved with … I don’t know if I would have survived if I really knew that.”

Clary remained at Buchenwald until the camp was liberated on April 11, 1945. He was the lone survivor of his 13 family members sent to the camps. Twelve of whom were taken to Auschwitz where they were murdered. After the war ended, Clary returned to Paris, where he learned that three of his siblings survived the occupation of France, and it wasn’t long before he returned to showbusiness. He continued singing and gained a great deal of worldwide recognition. He toured the United States where he met Eddie Cantor, the man who would become his father in law. He acted in films and television and is probably best known for his work on Hogan’s Heroes where he played Corporal Louis LeBeau.^[1]

9 Meyer Gottlieb—Producer

Meyer Gottlieb was born shortly after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Though his memories of his early childhood during the war are limited, the ones he has retained are unpleasant, to say the least. “I have no memories of joyous events. The first real memories of a childhood I have are after I came to America.” The Gottlieb family fled their home as the Germans advanced, and they found themselves retreating with the Russian military until finally winding up in a Ukranian labor camp. When he was only three or four-years-old, he remembers his father wrapping his infant brother in a tallis before carrying him outside the labor camp so he could give him a proper burial.

Another vivid memory that haunts Gottlieb was that of his father, who was an officer in the Polish Army, getting into a black bus to fight the Germans towards the end of the war. He never saw him again. Four years after arriving in Ukraine, the war came to an end, and Gottlieb and his mother were expelled to a displaced persons camp in the U.S. sector of occupied Germany. Eventually, Gottlieb emigrated to the United States, where he produced films, including hits like Master and Commander and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. He was eventually elevated to become the president of Samuel Goldwyn Films.^[2]

8 Imre Kertész—Novelist

Imre Kertész was born in Budapest in 1929, where he later attended boarding school in a segregated class consisting entirely of Jews. In 1944, he was rounded up with other Hungarian Jews and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp at the age of 14. He didn’t remain at Auschwitz, as he was transferred to Buchenwald, where he claimed to be 16-years-old, and a worker. He said this to avoid instant extermination, which would have been his fate had the Nazis known he was only 14. He managed to survive until Buchenwald was liberated the following year. When the war ended, he returned to Budapest, where he finished high school in 1948.

He began working as a journalist for several years, but after the paper he was working for adopted the communist party line, he lost his job. He continued to write, mostly doing freelance jobs while working on his novels, the most well-known of which, Fetelessness, revolves around the experiences of a 15-year-old boy trapped in the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and Leitz. That work was adapted into a film based on Kertész’s script. Throughout his life, he wrote 17 books and received numerous honors. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history.”^[3]

7 Ivan Klíma—Playwright

Ivan Kauders was born in Prague in 1931, where he grew up without any issues, not even knowing his parents had Jewish ancestry. Neither were observant Jews, but that didn’t matter when the Nazis came to Czechoslovakia in 1938. In November 1941, his father was ordered to a concentration camp at Theriesenstads; he and his mother followed the next month. The family remained in the camp until it was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945. Their survival was remarkable, as Theriesenstads was a holding camp, which regularly shipped Jews to Auschwitz, but they survived there for four years.

Soon after the war came to an end, the terror of the occupying Nazi regime was replaced by the proxy Soviet control in the form of the Czech Communist regime, of which Klima became a member. Klima’s experiences in the concentration camp flowed into his writing, and he has described this time as being “the liberating power that writing can give.” Throughout his life, Klima worked as a prolific playwright, and as a professor at the University of Michigan. He has been recognized for his work with the Magnesia Litera award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and many other significant honors.^[4]

6 Curt Lowens—Actor

Curt Lowens (originally, Löwenstein) was born in Olsztyn, Poland in 1925, and as the Nazis came to power in Germany, he and his family moved to Berlin. They hoped to find shelter among the large Jewish community there, but it wasn’t long before the Nazis forced the family to emigrate to the Netherlands. They planned to emigrate from there to the United States, but the day they were meant to depart, the Nazis invaded. For the first two years of the occupation, the Löwensteins managed to avoid deportation to Auschwitz, but eventually, Curt and his mother were rounded up and sent to Westerbork, a transition concentration camp in 1943. They were released through his father’s connections, but the family subsequently had to go into hiding.

For the next two years, the family remained in hiding but worked actively with a network of Dutch rescuers to save as many people from the Nazis as they possibly could. Under false identities, Lowens and his mother aided in the rescue of 150 Jewish children. He also saved two downed American Army Air Corpsmen, which earned him a commendation from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. After the Netherlands was liberated, he aided the Allies as a translator and helped capture Nazi leaders remaining in the area. Soon after the war ended, he and his family emigrated to the United States, where he studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York. Over the course of his long career, Lowens starred in more than 100 films and television shows.^[5]

5 Branko Lustig—Producer

Branko Lustig was born to a Croatian Jewish family in the former Yugoslavia, now Croatia, in 1932. While his parents weren’t religious, his grandparents were, and they attended synagogue regularly. Lustig grew up in relative peace until World War II began, and it wasn’t long before he was taken as a young boy to the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. The vast majority of his family was killed in various death camps across Europe, though his mother did survive, and the two reunited after the war came to an end. When he was finally liberated, he was infected with Typhoid and weighed only 66 lbs., and he credited his survival to a German officer who came from his same neighborhood. The man knew who his father was, and because of this connection, he helped Lustig survive.

When the war came to an end, Lustig regained his health and began a film career in 1955. He worked for a Zagreb-based state-owned film production company where he worked on several projects. Eventually, he went on to work on 1971’s The Fiddler on the Roof and many more movies. He received his first Academy Award for his work on Schindler’s List, and his second came for his work on Gladiator. He’s worked as a producer and executive producer on numerous films throughout his long career and remained a well-respected and influential man in Hollywood until his death in 2019.^[6]

4 Roman Polanski—Director

Roman Polanski was born in Paris to a Jewish family in 1933. The family relocated to Kraków in 1936, which is where they remained when Germany began its invasion of Poland. The city was soon occupied, and the Pola?skis were rounded up and forced to live in the Kraków Ghetto. He began primary school at the age of six, but only remained a few weeks before “all the Jewish children were abruptly expelled.” Soon after, all Jews were required to wear armbands with a blue Star of David, so they could be easily identified. It wasn’t long before the Germans began deporting Jews from the Ghetto, and he watched as both of his parents were sent to concentration camps.

Pola?ski managed to escape the Ghetto in 1943 and was able to survive the remainder of the war with the help of Polish Roman Catholics. He memorized Catholic prayers so he could pass as Catholic, but his ignorance of the Catechism outed him to those unwilling to shelter a Jew for fear of death. Later, he roamed the Polish countryside, avoiding German soldiers when he could, and he survived the war. When the war ended, he began working in films in Poland and eventually became an Academy Award-winning director. These days, he’s mostly known for his work in Hollywood and his arguably criminal affairs with young girls, which keeps him from ever returning to the United States.^[7]

3Leon Prochnik—Screenwriter

Leon Prochnik was born in 1933 to a Jewish family who owned the second-largest chocolate factory in Poland. For most of his youth, he enjoyed a privileged existence, but by 1939, the family was forced to flee Nazi-occupied Poland. His father was warned via telegram by one of his workers that the Nazis were looking for him, and despite being on vacation from Kraków, they never returned. He and his family kept on the run for more than a year and a half, which saw them travel through Lithuania, Russia, Japan, Canada, and finally, the United States. Emigrating to the U.S. at that time was difficult, and the family was detained for some time at U.S. Customs. “America would not let Jewish refugees in at that point; it was not a very proud moment in America’s history.”

He later said of his first night after finally settling in New York, “It was the first night I remember sleeping without my fists being clenched.” After the war ended, and life began to return to a sense of normalcy, Prochnik received an education and began working in film as a writer and editor. His most notable work was on the film Child’s Play, for which he wrote the screenplay. He has also directed, edited, and produced shorts.^[8]

2 Ruth Westheimer—Sex Therapist

Karola Ruth Siegel was born in June 1928 in Wiesenfeld, Germany, to a family of Orthodox Jews who taught her Judaism at an early age. She attended synagogue regularly with her father, but in January 1939, she was sent to Heiden, Switzerland, to live in an orphanage so as to avoid the horrors of the oncoming war and Nazi regime. Before this happened, she watched as her father was taken during the Night of Broken Glass in 1938. She made it to the orphanage at the age of 11, where she became a caretaker to the younger children. During this time, she wasn’t allowed to attend school, but another orphan snuck books to her at night so she could continue her education.

While in Switzerland, her parents succumbed to the Nazi death machine; her father was killed at Auschwitz in 1942, and her mother was killed sometime during the war, but she never learned any specific information about her death. She later emigrated to Palestine at the age of 17 and joined the Haganah in Jerusalem as a scout and sniper. She was wounded in the 1947-49 Palestine war, and eventually, she moved to France before finally settling in the United States, where she became a renowned sex therapist who is best known for her radio show, Sexually Speaking. Most know her these days simply as Dr. Ruth, and as of late 2019, the 91-year-old was still busy working with appearances on The View, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and other shows.^[9]

1 Simon Wiesenthal—Writer & Nazi Hunter

Simon Wiesenthal was born on the last day of 1908 in an area of what is now known as Ternopil Oblast in Ukraine. His family had already emigrated from the Russian Empire three years earlier to escape the violent pogroms targeted against the Jewish community. His father was killed in action on the Eastern Front of World War I in 1915, which left the remainder of his family, including Simon, his younger brother Hillel, and his mother, Rosa. Simon graduated high school in 1928 and spent the next decade holding a supervisory position in a factory in Lwów until 1939. Eventually, Lwów was annexed by the Soviets before falling to German occupation in 1941.

Wiesenthal was first placed in the Lwów Ghetto before he and his wife were transferred to the Janowska concentration camp. Over the next few years, he was nearly killed several times, escaped the liquidation of the camp, was later captured and returned once more, and finally, the camp was liberated by invading Soviet forces, but he was forced on a death march few survived to Buchenwald, then Mauthausen concentration camp. He barely survived until liberation in May 1945. Through the course of the Holocaust, the couple lost a total of 89 relatives. When the war ended, he became a Nazi hunter who was a key figure in the apprehension of Adolph Eichmann in 1959. He also wrote extensively and crafted numerous stories and memoirs, many of which revolved around the events of his life.^[10]

Humans are sometimes known for their resilience and ability to survive horrendous situations. Some people may call it a miracle or divine intervention, but we may never know what enables some people to triumph when faced with life-draining accidents or intentional acts of violence and pain.

It makes us wonder what we might be capable of surviving. How could someone survive days in a sunken ship? Is it possible to survive getting sliced in half by a moving train? Can someone live through having their throat slashed? Yes! Learn about 10 remarkable people (and animals) who experienced pure horror and lived to tell the tale.

Related: 10 People Who Actually Survived Getting Hit By A Train

10 Tim Lancaster

Shortly after 8:20 am on Sunday, June 20, 1990, the co-pilot of British Airways Flight 5390 handed control of the aircraft to 42-year-old Captain Tim Lancaster. It was a flight bound for Málaga, Spain, from Birmingham, England.

Not long after take-off, one of the windscreen panels separated from the plane’s fuselage. The decompression was so strong that it pulled Lancaster from his seat and propelled him headfirst out of the cockpit window. But the position of the flight controls meant that Lancaster’s legs had become lodged behind them, saving him from being expelled from the aircraft altogether.

The stewards took turns holding onto Lancaster. After a while, most believed that the captain was dead—after all, the rushing air meant that his head had been hitting the plane’s fuselage for some time. But the co-pilot feared that letting go of Lancaster could cause detrimental damage to the plane and endanger everyone’s lives.

They continued to hold onto him. And their persistence paid off. When the plane finally landed, Lancaster was alive. Miraculously, the captain escaped with only bruising, fractures, and some frostbite. Within five months, he had returned to work and was back in the cockpit.^[1]

9 Finn the Dog

Finn is a dog who, on Wednesday, October 5, 2016, was acting as a police dog on call with his handler, PC Dave Wardell, in Stevenage, England.

They were searching for a suspect who was thought to be armed. The pair soon found him—and armed he was. In an attempt to stop him from running away, PC Wardell shouted a warning to the man, but he continued to flee. PC Wardell then released Finn, who caught up with the suspect and seized his leg.

Flying into a rage, the suspect plunged a knife into Finn’s chest and took another swipe at the dog’s head, but the dog never let go of the man’s leg. PC Wardell eventually caught up and was able to disarm the suspect.

Finn was rushed straight to a veterinarian. He underwent emergency surgery and had to have a portion of his lung removed. But despite his injuries, Finn made a full recovery and returned to duty as a police dog just 11 weeks later. After the attack, no charges were pressed against the 16-year-old culprit, so PC Wardell worked to pass Finn’s Law in England and Wales, which does not allow someone who injures a service animal to make a claim of self-defense.^[2]

8 Putney Bridge Woman

On Friday, May 5, 2017, in London, England, CCTV captured something extremely disturbing. A jogger running along Putney Bridge pushed a woman—a woman he likely didn’t know and who had done nothing at all to provoke him—into the path of an approaching bus.

The footage shows the woman hitting the ground and falling backward into the street, just in front of the wheels of a double-decker bus. But due to the driver’s exceptional reaction speed, he was able to swerve and dodge the woman entirely.

She escaped with no serious injuries. Frustratingly, the man who pushed her has never been identified.^[3]

7 Jennifer Morey

On the evening of Saturday, April 15, 1995, Jennifer Morey, of Houston, Texas, got ready for bed as she had done so many times before. But this wasn’t going to be a typical night.

Hours later, Morey became aware that there was somebody in her bed with her. The intruder had a knife in their hand and was holding it against Morey’s throat. She started to scream, but the man on top of her told her repeatedly to shut up. And he used her name. (Remember this. It’ll be important later.)

The man clearly knew her, but she didn’t recognize his voice. She continued fighting, but eventually, the man slashed Morey’s throat and fled the apartment. Morey, who had miraculously survived this frenzied attack, dialed 911 and soon received the help she needed. And it took the police no time at all to determine that her attacker had been the security guard for the apartment complex. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Morey made a full recovery, later opening her own law practice.

Ironically, Morey had chosen to live in this particular apartment complex because she felt it was a “safe” option.^[4]

6 Charla Nash

On Monday, February 16, 2009, a chimpanzee named Travis attacked a woman named Charla Nash in Stamford, Connecticut.

Travis had lived with Sandra Herold since he was just three days old. He had been involved in a few incidents in his time—most notably getting loose from a car, chasing a pedestrian, and holding up traffic in 2003. But six years later, Sandra’s friend Charla, with whom Travis was familiar, would suffer catastrophic injuries at the hands of the chimp. Upon seeing Charla exit Sandra’s house holding his favorite toy, Travis became angry and launched a devastating attack.

Despite Sandra attempting to prevent Travis from causing any more harm to Charla by stabbing him in the back with a butcher’s knife, the attack only ended when a police officer shot him. But by that time, Charla had suffered extreme injuries. Travis had torn off her hands, ripped off her eyelids, nose, and lips, and destroyed several of the bones in her face.

Travis died that day, but—against all odds—Charla didn’t. She underwent several surgeries after the ordeal, including a face transplant in 2011, and is now living on her own with a some part-time care help.^[5]

5 Harrison Okene

Harrison Okene probably thought that Sunday, May 26, 2013, would be his last day on Earth.

Okene was a cook working onboard a tugboat that had been assisting an oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean. But the sea was rough that day, and the tugboat capsized. Eventually settling on the seabed 30 meters (98 feet) below the surface, the capsized tugboat claimed the lives of 11 crew members. Okene was the only survivor.

But how had he managed to survive this catastrophic incident? He had managed to find his way into a room that seemed to have enough air to help him stay alive. When inside, he created a platform that enabled him to keep most of his torso above water, which he knew would delay hypothermia and drowning. But he also knew his time would be limited.

Okene was eventually saved by a group of divers, and he went on to make a full recovery. He originally swore that he would never enter the ocean again, but just two years later, Okene gained a diploma in commercial diving. (And the man who found and saved him was the one who presented him with the certificate.)^[6]

4 Phineas Gage

How anyone could survive a long iron pole penetrating their cheek and moving through their eye socket before exploding out of the top of their head is difficult to imagine. But that’s exactly what happened to Phineas Gage.

In 1848 in Cavendish, Vermont, Gage was working as a railroad employee exploding rocks in order to clear a path for a new rail line. When the pole impaled Gage’s head, it destroyed most of the frontal lobe in his brain. The frontal lobes are the parts of our brain that control our personalities, behaviors, and emotions. And after his injury, many who knew Gage would report that his personality underwent some drastic shifts.

John Martyn Harlow, who treated Gage’s injuries, reported that he became “fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity, which was not previously his custom.”

Gage lived for another 12 years after this accident. But it’s widely believed that the seizure that eventually killed him was connected to the injury that changed his life more than a decade before.^[7]

3 Truman Duncan

Like Phineas Gage, Truman Duncan was also a rail worker. And in June 2006, in Cleburne, Texas, Duncan suffered a similarly catastrophic injury.

While riding on the front of a train car, Duncan lost his footing and fell onto the tracks below. He tried to outrun the vehicle, but it eventually caught up with him and started to drag him underneath the wheels. By the time this horrific ordeal was over, the train had dragged him 23 meters (75 feet) and essentially cut his body in half at the waist.

But unbelievably, his injuries didn’t quell his drive to survive. He reached for his phone and dialed 911. While waiting for help to arrive, Duncan thought of his wife and kids. And whenever he felt himself starting to get sleepy, he’d try to move around and keep his strength up.

Help eventually came—about 45 minutes later. By that time, Duncan had lost over half the blood in his body. But against all odds, he survived. He underwent over 20 surgeries, had his left leg amputated at the hip, and had his right leg amputated above the knee.

Duncan soon returned to work at the rail yard but took up a role in an office instead—probably for the best.^[8]

2 Mary Vincent

In the 1970s, it was very normal to hitchhike. Many people believed it was a safe experience. But some weren’t so lucky.

On Friday, September 29, 1978, 15-year-old Mary Vincent from Las Vegas, Nevada, hitched a ride with Lawrence Singleton. She had been waiting for a ride with two others, but Singleton said he only had room in his van for one person. (Are alarm bells ringing for anyone else yet?)

After a while, Singleton stopped the van and got out to urinate. Vincent joined him, using the opportunity to tie up her shoelaces. But before she could stand upright again, Singleton had attacked her with a hammer. He threw Vincent back into the van, tied her up, and raped her repeatedly. She eventually lost consciousness. When she finally woke up, Singleton was dragging her away from his van.

Vincent started to struggle with Singleton, but he was armed with a hatchet. He swung at her left arm, severing her hand and forearm. He then cut off her right forearm. He threw Vincent down a steep embankment and into a drainage culvert, leaving her for dead. However, Vincent had survived her ordeal. With every ounce of strength and courage she could muster, she climbed back up the embankment and managed to get help from a young couple.

After being rushed to the hospital, Vincent recovered—physically if not mentally. Singleton was sentenced to only 14 years in prison and served only eight of those. Upon his release, he moved to his home state of Florida, where he stabbed a woman to death in 1997. He was convicted, and Vincent testified at his sentencing, facing her attacker after twenty years. Singleton was sentenced to death but died of cancer in 2001, awaiting execution.^[9]

1 Alison Botha

Alison Botha’s story is one of the most horrific and remarkable in living memory. Her attack happened near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on Sunday, December 18, 1994.

Alison was returning home from a friend’s house when a man with a knife approached her car and forced his way inside. He told her to move out of the driver’s seat. Already fearing for her life, she obeyed his orders. The man began to drive. He told Alison he needed to borrow her car for a couple of hours. But when the man stopped to pick up a friend and continued driving to a remote area, Alison knew she was in very real danger.

In a clearing, the two men—named Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger—raped Alison and stabbed her more than 30 times. But they didn’t stop there. Concerned that Alison would survive the attack and go to the police, Toit and Kruger had nearly disemboweled her and cut her throat so deeply that they nearly decapitated her. Then, satisfied that Alison was dead, the men left her in the clearing.

But Alison wasn’t dead. Incredibly, she was conscious enough to make her way to a nearby road and flag down help. She later reported that she had to hold onto her nearly severed head to keep it from falling backward. Despite the atrocity of the attack, Alison recovered, telling her story in a book and lecturing about her survival. And Toit and Kruger were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.^[10]